Monday, July 02, 2007

Vet here for Sofia

I wrote this last week, intending to include a photo of Sofia's extracted wolf teeth. I lost one of the teeth and have not yet taken a photo, so am publishing this now sans pic.

I have a slew of vets involved with our animal care. Usually AK does the routine stuff for all the outside animals but the birds (horses, cows, sheep, goats). RVV in town does the cats and when we've had a dog, the dog. PA, a few hours away, I use for a wholistic approach with the cats, and recently I used HH for chiropractic and acupuncture for the horses. Today I had KG here on HH's recommendation that I get x-rays of her injured foot, plus AK's recommendation that KG pull Sofia's wolf teeth.

It all went remarkably well. Sofia got points for being so laid back and cooperative. She almost lost those points during the teeth extraction but she contained her disdain adequately and the procedure went more smoothly than anyone expected.

KG did a lameness assessment first (this is followup care for the puncture wound a few months back) and suggested blocking her lower limb to isolate if the lameness is from her hoof injury or something further up her hind leg. The block did leave her trotting out without any lameness so that was nicely definitive. We proceeded with x-rays and I will hear about them perhaps as soon as this evening. If they show nothing -- which is likely because they would reveal bone damage and not soft tissue damage -- my next option is to have an MRI on her foot. I will consider that if I'm told that some specific treatment would be her only possibility to regain full soundness, and that could be determined only by an MRI.

After the x-rays came the teeth extractions. First the sedative. Wow, Sofia went dopey quickly! Then the mouth speculum which was a new experience for her. The sedation helped her be pretty nonchalant about that. Then nerve blocks in her mouth, followed by a tool that pushes back the gum tissue around the tooth, then the tool that she uses to grasp the tooth and wiggle and rock it back and forth to loosen it. From the size of the teeth, KG expected quite an ordeal, however she was pleasantly surprised each time a tooth popped out without much effort. Well, I can say that because I was not the one exerting myself in this weather we've been having!

Sofia is now nodding off in her stall, recovering from the sedation. I'm grateful this is over and hopeful the x-rays show nothing abnormal in the bones of her right hind foot.

What's up for the rest of the day? Our hay man stopped by this morning and asked me to show up at 12:30 with truck and trailer to pick up hay he's baling right now. RNB has suggested today is as good as any day to go trade in the station wagon for a smaller station wagon. And I'm planning on attending as a student this afternoon's Advanced Sidewalker Training at High Horses where my roles usually include teaching riding lessons, teaching volunteers, and consulting with horse training needs. With the temperatures heading to the mid-90s, I won't miss riding today.

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